The Coburn Blog

This summer, I’m taking CIS 280, which is a co-op internship class. My Guidance Counselor from school, found me a job at a web development company called Vision It Now. I just had to do it to complete my 96 hours of internship required for my degree. I couldn’t get paid for it, otherwise it would mess up Social Security, and that 1,500 “total household income” limitation crap, so I volunteered to do it for free for those 96 hours, but the job ended up not working out like I had hoped.

Oh well. I talked to Vocational Rehab this morning, and there going to help me find something else hopefully. I talked to the library, they said they’ve had interns there before, but they haven’t got back with me yet and its been over a week now.

The trouble I have finding work alot of times, and this is for anyone who cannot drive a car, is having to deal with transportation issues. When I am employed with a company, I can either walk (which I like to do its good exercise for me and it doesn’t take longer then an hour to walk anywhere here in Warsaw, hehe) or I have the option of taking the City Bus, or a Taxi.

A Taxi costs $10 per way, per stop now, so I don’t take them anywhere unless its an absolute emergency. Its not that I don’t mind spending $20 per day to get to work, I just don’t have it. I can’t pay what I don’t have. Besides that, they get so busy in the mornings and late afternoons that they don’t show up on time. When I had my interview with Vision It Now, the taxi was 2 hours late picking me up, so I was 20 minutes late for the interview. I didn’t know where they were located, so I wanted the taxi to take me early so I could find the place, then go get a cup of coffee from McDonalds or something and wait until my interview, but that didn’t work out. I don’t blame Vision It Now for being mad at me for that. I admit, I was 20 minutes late for the interview, beyond my control yeah, but still doesn’t look good on me, so alot of the reason that job didn’t work out was mostly because of transportation related issues beyond my control.

I mean, ok yeah I didn’t like my boss, and I wasn’t too crazy about the work, and all that, but that comes with any job, I can always suck that up by blowing off some steam somewhere. I didn’t mind walking, its good exercise for me, I just don’t see why they had a problem with me walking to work. My two feet are the only transportation in this town I can truly depend upon, since the taxi or city bus just aren’t reliable.

The city bus option, is cheaper, it costs $1.50 per stop per way, which is only $3 a day, thats about what gas costs now anyway, which is cool. The trouble with the City bus in this town, this is one thing my boss and I at Vision It Now did agreed upon, they don’t always show up either, and when they do, if they don’t see you standing right outside where they drive by at, they write you up as a no show. It took my boss and I several calls to finally explain to them “this guy cannot see you drive up you have to go around the block to get him”. After 2 no-shows, they suspend you from taking the city bus for 1 year. After 3 no-shows, your suspended indefinitely.

Isn’t that system stupid? I mean, what if your at work and you pass out and have to be rushed to ER. Yeah you can call the city bus and tell them, but they still write you up as a no show for that day. My boss at Vision It Now, she was saying she had similar issues with her son, or daughter or something. Someone should write a letter to the city and complain thats all I have to say about it. I don’t mind paying a no show fee for not showing up one day in an emergency situation, but they should not suspend you for 2, or more, offenses. They should just charge you for their tiime, and leave it at that, but thats not what they do no.

When I used to work at KMC Corp, before Susan started working there, my boss at KMC walked in with me to speak to the owner of the place. He had two no-shows written up on me, so the owner of the company I was working for stepped in and said “hey look man, he needs a ride into work and your going to take him”. They finally did agree upon a years suspension, instead of a suspension indefinitely, but isn’t that rediculus though?

I think what I need to do, is get away from Warsaw, to a bigger city that has better public transportation services. I thought about moving to where my brother lives around the Indianapolis area. He lives in Noblesville, but I know Indianapolis has excellent public transportation, and other such services for the blind and disabled. They have a better bioptic driving program down there too from what I hear, so I’m thinking seriously about moving there.

I’ll have my Social Security Disability check wherever I move to, but I’ll just have to figure out where to live. A possibility I thought about, was talking to my Vocational Rehab counselor about it, see if he knows about any relocation programs for the blind and disabled.

It is too bad the job didn’t work out, and I really do appreciate Vision It Now giving me this chance and everything. I just know if I could move to a larger city with better public transportation options, it would open up a world of options for me, but in the meantime, I am stuck here in Warsaw, so I’m out finding a place to complete my internship program. The library is one prospect I have in mind right now. I am going to speak with Staffmark today, our local temp agency, to see if they work with interns or not, I really don’t know. I could always do it at Biomet or Zimmers or MedTronics or something. I asked the hospital, they don’t work with interns. I did speak to my VR counselor though, and asked him if he would speak to Anthony Wayne Services of Warsaw for me. They have job placement services for the blind and disabled, but you have to go thru VR to get job placement assistance from them, so I’m awaiting for him to return my call right now.

Ivy Tech’s job placement program has been real disappointing, they just don’t have anything. Oh, how I wish I lived in South Bend though. Ivy Tech of South Bend, this region’s home office, has all kinds of services the Warsaw campus does not have. They have a Learning lab, where I could get help learning how to read (like my nephew Ryan went thru, I have the same issues he does with reading and studying) they have better accommodations there for persons with disabilities, like software for the computer that is authorized to work in testing situations, like for the A+ and Network+ certifications, that Warsaw just doesn’t have. I wouldn’t be surprised if Indianapolis had a similar setup, Warsaw just doesn’t. My VR counselor is from Elkhart, and just doesn’t understand Warsaw doesn’t have all the services that the bigger cities like South Bend and Ft Wayne have.

I thought about moving to Ft Wayne too, but nothing against my family I love them all dearly, but my life would be an Everybody Loves Raymond episode if I moved there, with my mom popping in every day whenever she felt like it. ugh. I love my mom, I really do, but not that much. haha.  Have you guys seen that show “everybody loves Raymond”.  Oh I love that show!! I about die laughing every time I watch it.   Another funny show I like to watch is “Courage the Cowardly Dog” on cartoon network. hustess and muriel on that cartoon remind me of my mom and step-dad, it is so funny!!